This is a B-Greek reading Group for the LXX Isaiah. This reading group is going through two chapters of the LXX Isaiah per week. Ken Penner, the B-Greek moderator for the "Septuagint and Pseudepigrapha Forum" is writing a commentary on the LXX Isaiah and is sharing his notes with those who wish to read the Isaiah LXX. Dive in, if you dare!

430. What house would you build for me? (66:1-2)66.1 Heaven is a throne for me, and the land is a footstool for my feet; what kind of house will you build for me, or what kind of place of my rest? 2 For my hand made all these things, and all these things are together, says Lord, And upon whom will I look other than upon the one who is humble and quiet and trembles at my words? 431. I will repay those who rebuff me (66:3-4)3 But the lawless person who sacrifices a calf for me is like one who kills a dog, and who offers up fine flour like swine’s blood, who gives frankincense as a remembrance like a blasphemer. And these people have chosen their ways and their abominations, which their soul wanted. 4 And let me select their mockeries and I will repay them their sins, because I called to them and they did not listen to me; I spoke and they did not hear. And they did what is evil before me and they chose things that I was not desiring.

432. Those who hate us will be put to shame (66:5)5 Hear the word of Lord, you who tremble at his word; our brothers, tell those who hate and abhor us, so that the name of Lord might be magnified and seen in their joy, and those people will be put to shame. 433. Repayment; bearing a son before going into labour (66:6-7)6 A voice from the temple, the voice of Lord recompensing a recompense to the opponents. 7 Before the woman in labour gave birth, and before the pain of the labour arrived, she escaped and bore a male. 434. Zion was in labour (66:8-9)8 Who has heard such things, and who has seen so? Or was the land in labour for a single day, if also a nation was born at once? For Sion was in labour and bore her children. 9 I have given this expectation, and you did not remember me, said Lord. Look, did I not make the sterile and the fertile woman? said God.

435. Enjoy Mother Jerusalem (66:10-11)10 Rejoice, Jerusalem, and celebrate in her, all you who love by her, rejoice with joy, all you who mourn over her, 11 so that you might nurse and be filled from the breast of her comfort, in order that you who suck everything might revel because of the entrance of her glory.

436. Lord will comfort you like a mother in Jerusalem (66:12-14)12 Because thus says Lord, Look, I am diverting the glory of the nations to them like a river of peace and like an overflowing torrent; their children will be carried on shoulders and will be comforted upon knees. 13 As a mother would comfort someone, so I also will comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem. 14 And you will look, and your heart will rejoice, and our bones will spring up like a plant, and the hand of Lord will be known to those who revere him, and you will warn those who resist.

437. Lord's fire will judge the land (66:15-16)15 For look, Lord will come like fire and his chariots like a storm, to repay vengeance in wrath, and dismissal in a flame of fire. 16 For all the land will be judged by the fire of Lord and all flesh by his sword; there will be many wounded by Lord. 438. False worshippers will be destroyed (66:17-18)17 Those who purify and cleanse themselves for the gardens and eat swine's bodies and abominations and the mouse in the doorways, they will be destroyed together, said Lord. 18 And I know their works and their reasoning. 439. All nations will see my glory (66:18-19)I am coming to assemble all the nations and their tongues, and they will come and will see my glory. 19 And I will leave a sign on them and I will send upon them those who have been saved to the nations, to Tharsis and Phouth and Luth and Mosoch and Thobel and to Greece and to the far islands, who have not heard my name or seen my works and glory, and they will proclaim my glory among the nations. 440. Your brothers will return from the nations (66:20-21)20 And they will bring your brothers from all the nations as a gift to Lord, with horses and chariots in covered chariots of mules with sunshades, into the holy city Jerusalem, said Lord, as the sons of Israel would bring their sacrifices to me with psalms into the house of Lord.

21 And I will take priests and Levites from among them for myself, said Lord. 441. All people will worship in Jerusalem and see the transgressors' corpses (66:22-24)22 For in the way that the new sky and the new land, which I am making, remain before me, said Lord, so will your seed and your name be established. 23 And it will be for month after month and Sabbath after Sabbath that all flesh will come before me to worship in Jerusalem, said Lord God. 24 And they will go out and see the corpses of the people who transgressed against me, for their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will become a spectacle to all flesh.

What house would you build for me? (66:1-2)
1 The words Οὕτω λέγει Κύριος were added by scribe B himself; A, B (followed by Rahlfs and Ziegler) have Οὕτως λέγει Κύριος. Matthew alludes to the sky and earth being God’s throne and footstool, in Matt 5:34-35, “ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν μὴ ὀμόσαι ὅλως· μήτε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὅτι θρόνος ἐστὶν τοῦ θεοῦ. μήτε ἐν τῇ γῇ, ὅτι ὑποπόδιόν ἐστιν τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ. John 4:21 alludes to God’s independence from temples without using any of the vocabulary of Isaiah 66:1: ἔρχεται ὥρα ὅτε οὔτε ἐν τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ οὔτε ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις προσκυνήσετε τῷ πατρί. Isa 66:1-2 is quoted in Acts 7:49-50 as ὁ οὐρανός μοι θρόνος, ἡ δὲ γῆ ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν μου· ποῖον οἶκον οἰκοδομήσετέ μοι, λέγει κύριος, ἢ τίς τόπος τῆς καταπαύσεώς μου; οὐχὶ ἡ χείρ μου ἐποίησενταῦταπάντα; Isaiah 66:1 is reproduced verbatim, but the phrases from 66:2 are rearranged.
2 Scribe B originally included the words πάντα ταῦτα, λέγει Κύριος· καὶ ἐπὶ τίνα ἐπιβλέψω twice: in addition to writing them after ἅμα, he also wrote them at the beginning of the verse, but caught his mistake and deleted the first instance. If they were included, the translation would be “For Lord says all these things. And upon whom will I look? My hand acted, and all are togther, says Lord.”

I will repay those who rebuff me (66:3-4)
3 According to Kim (2009, 207–8), the words ὁ δὲ ἄνομος with no Hebrew counterpart refer to the same people described in 33:14: priests who had formerly offered improper sacrifices had departed Zion, and the sacrifices offered were thereafter acceptable. The word ὕειον was spelled ὕιον (which would be the masculine accusative noun “son”), and this is the spelling also of A, but the neuter context requires an adjective, which is what B has (followed by Rahlfs and Ziegler). Sasson (1976) noted that the presence of the comparator ὡς (corresponding to 1QIsaa כמכה) but absent in MT, means even some lawful rituals are a condemned.
4 LEH notes that τὰ ἐμπαίγματα αὐτῶν is a neologism. Instead of ἐμπαίγματα, A has the spelling ἐνπαίγματα. In Isaiah, outside of chapters 7 and 14, the verb ἐκλέγομαι only appears in chapter 40-66; it almost always is a translation of בחר. The form ἠβουλόμηνis imperfect, but the significance of this form rather than the aorist is not clear. There is an allusion in 2 Th 1:8 to those who do not obey: ἐν πυρὶ φλογός, διδόντος ἐκδίκησιν τοῖς μὴ εἰδόσιν θεὸν καὶ τοῖς μὴ ὑπακούουσιν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ.

Those who hate us will be put to shame (66:5)
5 Instead of καὶ ἐκεῖνοι (the spelling also of B), A (followed by Rahlfs and Ziegler) have κἀκεῖνοι. In 2 Th 1:12 the glorification of the Lord’s name is applied to Jesus: ὅπως ἐνδοξασθῇτὸ ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν

Zion was in labour (66:8-9)
8 Instead of ἑώρακεν (the spelling also of A and followed by Rahlfs and Ziegler), B spells it ἑόρακεν.
9 According to Eusebius, the expectation was given by the prophecies, which predicted future events. When those events took place, those witnessing them should have gained faith; instead they did not remember God (2.57).

Enjoy Mother Jerusalem (66:10-11)
10 Instead of an article and participle such as πάντες οἱ ἀγαπῶντες, which would match the Hebrew, G uses a relative pronoun and indicative verb in πάντες ὅσοι πενθεῖτε, with no apparent difference in meaning.
11 The word πᾶν was spelled ΠΑ but was then deleted by ca, in agreement with A and B (and followed by Rahlfs and Ziegler).

Lord will comfort you like a mother in Jerusalem (66:12-14)
12 Instead of the verb with objectינקתם “you will nurse”, G read the noun with possessive יונקיהם “your infants.”
13 Instead of κἀγὼ (the spelling also of B), A (followed by Rahlfs and Ziegler) spells it καὶ ἐγὼ.
14 The form ἀπειλήσῃ could be a second person future middle or an aorist subjunctive, in which case the form could be either second person middle or third person active. The parallelism prefers a future; the middle is used in Acts 4:17 with the meaning “warn.” Other manuscripts have the future active “threaten.” John 16:22 quotes from this verse with the words πάλιν δὲ ὄψομαι ὑμᾶς, καὶ χαρήσεται ὑμῶν ἡ καρδία.

Lord's fire will judge the earth (66:15-16)
15 The noun ἀποσκορακισμὸν is cognate with the verb ἀποσκορακίζω, which is used in Isa 17:3 and Psalm 26(27):9 in the sense of “dismiss” The dismissal can refer to execration or cursing. The original scribe wrote the genitive plural ἀποσκορακισμῶν, which is phonetically the same as the accusative singular ἀποσκορακισμὸν. The allusion in 2 Th 1:8 (ἐνπυρὶ φλογός, διδόντος ἐκδίκησιν τοῖς μὴ εἰδόσιν θεὸν καὶ τοῖς μὴ ὑπακούουσιν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ) also draws from earlier verses in Isa 66.
16 According to Eusebius, God used physical metaphors in order for the Jews to understand the threats, and Romans 2:5-6 has this verse in mind.

False worshippers will be destroyed (66:17-18)
17 The phrase ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ is an idiom indicating togetherness, usually of time (“at the same time” Deut 22:10), location (“at the same place” Deut 25:5), interaction (fighting together Deut 25:11) or fate (“indiscriminately” Deut 12:15). The latter is the meaning in this instance. The reading ὕεια was changed by corrector cb2 to ὑειῶν, and by cb2 again to ὕειον; A and B (followed by Rahlfs and Ziegler) have ὕιον.
18 Manuscripts A and B have no verb ἐπίσταμαι at the end of the paragraph. Eusebius read the phrase ἔρχομαι συναγαγεῖν twice; he interpreted κἀγὼ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν καὶ τὸν λογισμὸν ἔρχομαι συναγαγεῖν together: “And I am coming to gather their works and reasonings.” Then he interpreted πάντα τὰ ἔθνη καὶ τὰς γλώσσας ἔρχομαι συναγαγεῖν “I am coming to gather all thenations and tongues.” (2.58).

All nations will see my glory (66:18-19)
19 Only here is שׂים translated by καταλείπω; normally καταλείπω is a translation of שׁאר. The Hebrew behind ἐπʼ αὐτῶν is בהמה. Ottley said, “here their rendering, though the idea is easy (cf. σημεῖον αἰώνιον, 55:13), is not what might be expected: nor is והשׁאירתי ‘and I will leave’ very near ושׂמתי, that it should have been misread” (2:386). The preposition ἐπί is used with the genitive (as ἐπʼ αὐτῶν) to indicate something is on the surface of something else. Instead of σεσῳσμένους with the iota subscript, Swete and Ottley spell it σεσωσμένους. Θαρσεὶς is the spelling used by Swete and Ottley; Rahlfs and Ziegler spell it Θαρσις. The relative pronoun οἳ is masculine, and could refer either to those saved (σεσῳσμένους) or to the inhabitants of the places just mentioned. Grammatically, the masculine σεσῳσμένους is preferable, but the context prefers the inhabitants because they don’t know God. Eusebius read it in the latter way, writing τοῦτο δὴ οὖν «τὸ σπέρμα» τὸ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐκείνων τῶν ἀπολλυμένων διασωθὲν ἐξαποστελῶ φησιν εἰς τὰ ἔθνη τὰ ἀλλογενῆ καὶ ἀλλόφυλα, εἰς Θαρσεῖς καὶ Φοὺδ καὶ Λοὺδ καὶ Μοσὸχ καὶ Θοβὲλ καὶ εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα καὶ εἰς τὰς νήσους τὰς πόρρω, οἳ οὐκ ἀκηκόασι τὸ ὄνομά μου οὐδὲ ἑωράκασι τὴν δόξαν μου (2.58). So the “seed” is those saved, and they are sent to the foreign peoples. Instead of ἑωράκασίν (the spelling also of A and followed by Rahlfs and Ziegler), B spells it ἑοράκασίν. Only S includes the words τὰ ἔργα καὶ, but the corrected reading μου τὴν δόξαν of cb2 is shared with B, it deserves more attention, despite the reading μου τὴν δόξαν of both A and Q.